Helping out the community and being a part of something bigger than one’s self is the goal of some students, and the opportunity to do this is presented in the National Honor Society [NHS]. NHS focuses on students volunteering to help out organizations within the community, giving the students new experiences they may have not been able to do.

“It’s really just to get out in the community and help,” senior Arianna Mansour said. “NHS does a lot with the school, we do school beautification, we help with parent-teacher conferences, open houses and blood drives.”

Students who like to achieve greater things, do more and help out are highly recommended to join NHS, as it focuses on such students. To get into NHS, there is an application process and some requirements interested students must have to possibly join the organization. One of the main requirements to get in is having a 3.5 Grade Point Average [GPA], going into your junior or senior year of high school and be recognized by the organization as having the qualities they look for.

“You have to have some previous experience of volunteering,” junior Jack Haynes said. “They look for different leadership positions that you’ve held, different volunteer experience you have done and extracurriculars. Just a lot of volunteering and leadership, it will help get stuff done and help out the community even more.”

The application process starts up in the spring as the organization will contact students that meet their desired criteria by handing out a letter in school with information regarding the process. The information in the letter will consist of the date for a mandatory meeting interested students must attend to get a formal application and know more about NHS. One of the main functions in NHS is different levels of student leadership, with teacher supervision.

“There is a student who is in charge of the different events,” NHS Adviser Charles Miller said. “And one of the things that students have to do is be a co-chair to figure out how to lead an event, then their senior year they will take over that event.”

There are different levels to the student leadership within NHS, highest being the president of the organization, then vice president below that, then members assigned events to monitor. These different levels of leadership can give students the ability to learn a better sense of responsibility as they move through their journey with the organization. Students considering NHS, watch first semester grades as they will be included for the 3.5 GPA requirement and wait for the letter to come in the springtime.